Women in Business: Don’t be satisfied with ‘good enough’

I recently read an article titled Good enough -  The Enemy of Great written by Gerald R. Kolb. 

The article itself spoke to the importance of benchmarking in a breast centre when it comes to breast cancer detection.  

Good stuff, which I completely endorse.  

Every organization which is screening for any cancer has a responsibility to benchmark their performance (e.g., cancer detection rate) against accepted standards.  

The article’s other important message for me was the reinforcement of what I consider to be one of my core beliefs — which is to strive for great results instead of simply being satisfied with a “good enough” outcome.

Developing a “good enough” attitude means that we will be content with the status quo.  

Over time we may find that we begin to routinely lower our standards or expectations.  

We may become at risk of not trying to do better than we did the day before.  

And very soon we may find that our work and life becomes burdensome because we have lost our commitment to fight and work for the best possible outcomes. 

We should also not forget that those around us, who are striving for great things, will easily surpass us. 

Inspirational

I love reading what I consider to be very inspirational advertisements, such as those of one of Bermuda’s local banks.  

The advertisement  that points out that over five times more people in China are learning English than in England. Wow!  

This demonstrates to me an understanding and acceptance of the need to embrace new opportunities and challenges which will ultimately help individuals or groups to attain greater accomplishments and not just a good enough result.

Okay, but realistically I know we can’t be great at everything!  

But, I believe each and every one of us can find those things in life that we are passionate about and we can dedicate ourselves to achieve great outcomes.  Devoting ourselves to something we are passionate about, and can commit to, mean that we can improve and change humanity for the greater good. 

If you look up the definition of “greatness” you will find several interpretations of its meaning.  I believe striving for great outcomes means a personal commitment to the pursuit of excellence.  

For the past five and one-half years I have been very fortunate to be the executive director at Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre.  

It has been one of the most rewarding and most challenging experiences I have had during my 25 year working career.  

I work with an amazing team of highly committed colleagues and I believe what brings each of us to work every day is our dedication to our charity’s vision — which is “to build healthier lives free of cancer and other diseases.”  

Our commitment to excellence has resulted in our Centre having the best possible cancer detection equipment and highly dedicated team of breast specialist doctors available locally.  

We also recently received the American College of Radiology’s Breast Imaging Centre of Excellence designation.  

But, what we do is not about designations.   

I believe that our team has successfully developed a culture which is about promoting excellence in the care we deliver to our patients.   

Vision

Our vision is not just about detecting cancer and disease in our community it’s about curing cancer and diseases.  

The Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre will only ever be able to achieve our vision if we stay committed to our pursuit of excellence with every patient, every family touched by cancer and every donor who places their faith in us to “build healthier lives free of cancer and other diseases”. n

Tara Soares is the executive director, Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre. The Centre is located at 46 Point Fiber Road, Paget. You can contact them at 236-1001 or go to the website at www.cancer.bm. They are also located in Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bdacancerandhealth